Ms. Green's 11 Tools

Sunday, June 2, 2013

1. The three tools I like the most are WallWisher, TodaysMeet, and DropBox. I plan to use WallWisher next year when I am teaching second grade for book clubs. Instead of meeting as a group, the kids could meet on WallWisher and have their book discussion. I think the kids will really enjoy doing this because it is different and fun.

2. I am going to use technology as much as possible with my students. I think it is a great way to engage them and allow them to show their learning in a new and exciting way. There are no changes I would need to make to my classroom to her incorporate technology more.

3. I am surprised by how easy it is to use online tools. This makes me feel more confident that the students could learn to use them easily. I am also surprised by how many different ideas you can get from searching blogs.

1. The first thing I want my students to know is that we, as teachers, expect them to adhere to the rules outlined by SBISD and we should be able to trust them to do the right thing. The second thing I want my students to know is how to decide if a site is credible or not. The last thing I want my students to know is that the rules are made to keep them safe and that is why it is important to follow them.

2. The resource I would use is the BrainPop on Digital Citizenship and possibly other BrainPop videos. The students respond well to BrainPop and the shows to a great job of explaining concepts and showing lots of different pictures to illustrate what they are saying.

3. I would start with a class discussion on what we think Digital Citizenship is and possible do a KWL chart. This would help me to see what they already know and where the gaps or misconceptions are in their learning.

4. I would most likely include something about it in my newsletter and I would also address it at Open House. This would allow me to address any questions at one time for everyone to hear and allow for people to bring up and comments or concerns they have about their child using technology in the classroom.

1. I think is it important because we need the students to see the connections and to see that technology can be used for learning and exploring, not just playing games.

2. We should hold students accountable for their station work because we want them to actually work during their stations. If they know they are not being held accountable, they are likely to either not do the work or not put full effort into the work.

3. The website I liked was LearningGamesForKids.com. I like this one because it has a large variety of games, but they are all educational. Some of the other game websites have educational games but also many other games that are not educational. I could use this website, along with a few others, in a math station with the netbooks. I could hold students accountable by having them write down which websites they visited, which games they played, and how long they played each game. I could also have the write down the difficulty level so I know they are challenging themselves.

4. One of the Apps I would use for a Math station would be MangaHigh. In this program I have created classes and added my students. Then I can assign certain objectives and assignments for the kids to complete. I think this is really good because you can pick out different objective for different kids and use it to target specific areas. This app is also very fun so the students will stay engaged. I can hold students accountable by signing on to the website and looking to see what each student has completed and how they did on it.

5. Another idea I had for a station would be to create QR codes and post them around the room. The students would find the QR codes and scan with an ipad or iPod. Then either a math problem or something reading related would pop up for the the students to solve. To hold them accountable, they would have to write down the number next to the QR code and the answer.

The Project could be ongoing throughout the year and it could go between my two different classes. I teach Math and Science to two different groups of kids and I could have them talk to each other using WallWisher or TodaysMeet. One idea I had was to have the students communicate with each other after we do experiments in class and discuss their findings and conclusions. I would implement this at the beginning of the year as I am talking about the Scientific Method and how we do lab write-ups in fifth grade.

The first tool I used was WallWisher. I think this tool can be used in a verity of ways in the classroom to discuss topics. One way I thought of would be to discuss chapters of books or reading assignments. Students could also post things they learned from watching a movie or give feedback to their peers about presentations.

One of the ideas I had for TodaysMeet was to use it as a place to have an ongoing conversation between your students. The students could log on every night and write about a particular subject, such as what phase the moon is in.

I think these tools would encourage participation because students love using technology and they also love talking to each other. I also think these tools would help those students who are less likely to participate in a classroom discussion due to shyness or fear of being wrong.

The second tool I used was ABCya! Word Clouds. Here is the word cloud I made:

I really like both of these tools. The first tool, Bookr, can be used to introduce a new concept, or students can use it to show what they have learned about a concept. The word cloud tool can be used in the same ways. I also like the word clouds for the beginning of the year. Students can make a word cloud about themselves and use it when introducing themselves to the class.